Fuel problem; what do you think?

[jklhill]

Yesterday morning I filled my 03 up at Costco and drove another 9 miles. She ran flawlessly as she always does. Bike was parked in the sun from 6:45 am until I got on to come home at 3:30 pm. 100+ temperatures this week. I went through my usual start routine and it cranked but would not fire. Strange because it always starts right up. I finally got her running at nearly full choke. Had to keep her rev'd or she would die. Tried to drive her and the best I could do was 4th gear between 3,500 and 4,000 rpm with the choke having to be nearly full on. Too much throttle and she would shut off but fire back up after stopping. Can rev her above 8,000 in neutral but if I hold it for very long she shuts off. I have a clear Tygon fuel line and flow to the carbs looks OK. I can only think I got some bad fuel. What say you guys? I got her home and will drain the tank and probably pull and check the carbs this weekend.

[mlf73]

I think I'd be suspicious of that fuel from the morning fill-up as well.  I'd dump the tank and drain all four carbs and start with a few gallons of fresh gas from somewhere else and go from there.  I'm not sure why it would still be running fine when you got to work and not want to start at all when you went to leave though.  You might want to add a little Heet or something to get any remaining water out of the system if the gas does end up being the problem.  Good luck.

Marlan

[MAN OF BLUES]

guess you won't be buying COSTCO gas any more......
definatly symptoms of water globs blocking the low speed and secondary jets.
drain that tank completely, suck out the fuel down in the corners with a turkey baster with a hose attached to reach the bottom corners, and put it in a clear jar.'
Drain the float bowls into clear jar also.
Take the jar into costco, and get a refund.
then pour the gas/water on the floor there .....


then get a new gascan, good fuel, and add a full bottle of IsoHeet, or Heet.... it'll clear up, but you need to ride thru and use all the fuel with that mix in one session.

[gtr1000]

Fuel starvation, gas tank cap not venting? Especially since you filled it right up and left it in the heat.

Try the easy fix first - will she run with the gas cap open?

[mach1charlie]

Yep, drain bowls into glass jar. Ever notice gas looks like water today (no color).

[jklhill]

Fuel starvation, gas tank cap not venting? Especially since you filled it right up and left it in the heat.

Try the easy fix first - will she run with the gas cap open?

Who told you?! Seems I always go for the hard stuff first but this was the first thing I tried. No joy.

[MAN OF BLUES]

Who told you?! Seems I always go for the hard stuff first but this was the first thing I tried. No joy.

now that this is outta the way, continue with my suggestions, please.

[jklhill]

Yeah, It was water. Thanks for the replies everyone. I went the route of pulling the carbs. It surprised me how small an amount of water I found but it was obviously enough to cause a big problem (or too much in this case). I used MOB's turkey baster tool to suck the water out of the back corners of the tank. Also cleaned and flushed the tank out as best I could and put in 3 gallons of fresh gas to recheck float levels. Checked the sync, lubed the throttle and choke cables, installed some iridium plugs and she's running good again. Makes me think about carrying a bottle of heet on long trips. This would not have been fun any distance away from civilization. Oh.............and I changed the fork oil and drilled a couple more holes in my emulators while I was at it.

[JDM]

Good job MOB

[MAN OF BLUES]

IsoHEET
I never go on a long distance ride without 2 or 3 bottles in the side bag, along with 30# of tools
I learned my lesson going south to play with my friends in Ga, after hurricane Gaston, or charlie...can't remember which, and had to dump 2 bottles into a full tank on the Dragon, and run 250 miles to burn it all out....it works, but you have to burn up all the fuel mixed a.s.a.p., sitting will allow it to re-disperse, and problems will resurface.....

it's a cure, but the side effect is you have to burn ALL the fuel, is there a problem with that?

"Honey, I have to go ride my bike for 300 miles, MOB told me that's the only cure...."